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Thursday, February 18, 2010

A Storage Tip For Craft Odds And Ends

I've got a storage tip to share with you guys today, for all those little odds and ends you need to keep corraled in your craft space. I really can't take credit for it, I saw this over on Dawn McVey's blog, Raspberry Suite. But I loved it so much, I thought I'd pass it along.

Look at these sweet little storage containers! They're half pint(8 oz) canning jars. This particular brand is by Ball. I bought them today at Walmart for $3.74 for the four pack. They're clear, so you can see exactly which one you want, and the low shape and wide mouth make it easy to flick through and fish out what you need.

And you can use them to store all kinds of things. In this one I dumped the rest of the pack of felt flowers that I used on the card I made earlier this week. Now I don't have to worry about them getting bent or folded in my big plastic craft box, which holds everything from stamps to punches to tools.

In another I'm storing my buttons, many of which belonged to my great-grandmother when she was alive. When I was a small child, I loved to visit her and sort all her buttons by shape and size and color. My grandmother, her daughter, is a talented seamstress, and she's used many of them in her creations, but she let me pick out a few to keep for myself.

They don't really stack well on top of each other, although I think maybe if you put a circle of cardboard in between each that might work better. But I actually like to stand them on their sides. Since they're kind of squared off, they store easily that way. They don't rock or shift at all. Plus it seems like they take up less space.

As you can see, I filled my other two jars with chipboard letters and bobbins of ribbon. If anyone knows of a good tip to store open ribbon, please let me know! I'm wracking my brains here. I've heard of using a towel rod, but how do you get them on and off? And what about the spools with really small holes? I need something thinner, but I can't think of what.

2 comments:

They are handy! I've added four more to my collection already. They're just perfect for what I need. Not too big, not to bulky, and you don't have to worry about your hand getting stuck in the jar when you reach down deep for something. It's all just right there at your fingertips.